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F1: Stewards Confiscate Toro Rosso Parts After Spyker Protest
Written by: Adam Cooper   http://www.speedtv.com
04/04/2007
Sepang, Malaysia
 


Spyker boss Colin Kolles (R, with technical director Mike Gascoyne) claims to have new evidence that Toro Rosso's car was designed by "parent" team Red Bull Racing. (LAT Photo) » More Photos

The thorny issue of customer cars has kicked off again in Malaysia after Spyker launched a protest against Scuderia Toro Rosso on the grounds that the car uses parts designed by another team.

This violates one of the cornerstones of the Concorde Agreement, which is in turn tied in to the FIA sporting regulations via the official entry form for the World Championship.

To back up its case Spyker has somehow obtained copies of factory drawings which clearly show that the parts were intended for use on both both RBR's RB3 and Toro Rosso's STR2. Significantly, the drawings are labeled with the logo "Red Bull Racing."

Since the controversy erupted in December the teams concerned have insisted that their cars were both designed by Red Bull Technology, a third party which was in essence a rebadged RBR design department under the leadership of Adrian Newey. However, the fact that the new name does not figure on the drawings does not seem to lend much weight to that claim.



Catch up on the latest in Formula 1 each month in RACER. Scott Speed relates the story behind his turbulent off-season with the Toro Rosso team in our May issue, on sale now!


In Australia
Spyker protested Super Aguri, but the protest was made too late in the weekend and was not accepted by the stewards. The team subsequently embarked on a process of arbitration against Super Aguri and STR.

STR's lawyer is in Malaysia and the team was clearly anticipating problems. He apparently said that since the arbitration process had started, it was not correct to set another process in motion via FIA channels.

This time the stewards have looked more closely into the matter, and in essence have agreed to "preserve the evidence," which can now also be used in the arbitration case.

In his first race weekend with the team new STR technical director Giorgio Ascanelli was therefore called upon to voluntarily hand over samples of the parts in question. This at least obviated the need for a garage "raid" by the scrutineers.

At around 7 p.m. on Thursday Ascanelli was spotted delivering a section of the underbody to race control. The stewards have held apparently held onto some parts but returned others, as the team claimed to be lacking in spares.

The most likely short-term scenario is that the stewards rule that they cannot make a judgment on the matter this weekend – the issue of intellectual property is a complex one – but the fact that they have seized parts and examined drawings can only lend weight to Spyker's arbitration case.